A History that Became Legend
by maoithe
Summary: My take on the Lily and James' final year at Hogwarts up until that fateful night when they died.
1. Chapter 1

The residents of Thicket, Essex woke on September first with a collective groan; the school children were heading back today which meant many things, good and bad. Firstly, it was officially the end of summer, and evenings had already started to become shorter, not that there was much of a summer to have had due to the unseasonal storms and even some icy mist occasionally. Then due to schools being back in term today, the traffic in London would be hectic with schools buses once again taking places in the traffic jams, school kids in gangs in all of the train stations. There was only one school that didn't start today at nine o'clock.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, since it was founded almost four hundred years ago, started its term with a start of year welcome feast in its Great Hall on the evening of September first. Although classes didn't normally start until the second at the earliest, for the students however, term started at eleven in the morning when the great crimson steam engine from Kings Cross station in London. This train was hidden on a secret platform in the station which required you to run through a wall. Although this seemed farfetched to most of the residents of Thicket, one family knew all too well where they would be going today.

The Evans family lived at number seven, Griffin Lane, and seemed to be just like any other family. They had two daughters, Lily and Petunia, both pleasant girls who never got into trouble or caused a disturbance. Their father, Harry, it was known, had served thirty years in the army and had retired early to spend time with his daughters whom he missed terribly when he was away. His Wife, Rose, had just retired from her post at the local hospital. She had been a nurse when Harry was in the army and they met when he had come back wounded to the base she was training at.

Fifteen years later they were married with one daughter and their second came along three years after that. After knowing from birth that she was special, there was no doubt when they were told officially of her magical abilities. The supported her completely and revelled when she told them all about her magical world each time she came back for her holidays. Today, they prepared to send their youngest daughter back for her final year of education.

Lily Evans sat at her mirror as she thought of the day ahead of her. Her emerald green eyes were glazed over as she absentmindedly ran a brush through her silky, flaming red hair thinking of the first day of her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A smile spread across her lips as her Head Girl badge gleamed up at her from the table. She had received the letter weeks ago, and was utterly delighted when the red and gold badge fell onto her lap in July.

The second thing she thought of was her co-worker. Who was to be Head Boy? She began thinking of all the Prefects that had worked with her since her fifth year. Severus Snape, a Slytherin was a possibility, yet Lily hoped this wouldn't be the case. Severus had been her first magical friend, the person who had told her almost everything she knew about the magical world. He was the one who told her she was a witch, the one who helped her at school. They were inseparable until they started to grow apart and were placed in different houses at the school. Severus had made new, dark friends. Lily remembered the last time they had spoken, he was pleading with her outside her common room but she wasn't listening. Her friend had insulted her, an insult that couldn't have been forgiven, not in Lily's eyes.

In any case, Lily highly doubted that any of the Slytherin boys would be chosen as her partner. It was widely known at Hogwarts that Severus, and several of his friends were part of a growing number that had begun to follow a dark wizard, Voldemort. A heinous beast who despised Muggles (people that did not have magical powers), people who consorted with them or even the witches and wizards, called 'Muggleborn', who were the rare product of two non-magical parents.

The second reason, thought Lily, was the fact that she was Muggle-born herself with non-magic parents. It was highly unlikely that the Headmaster, Dumbledore would consider putting her alongside one of the group which openly despised ''_Mudbloods_''. Lily sighed as she thought of the possibilities from the other houses.

Remus Lupin, a former Prefect and a boy who was also in her house of Gryffindor, was undoubtedly mature and clever enough to fulfill the role, but he often got quite sick and missed a lot of classes, therefore ruling him out of performing all of his Head Boy duties. This had also apparently caused him to resign at the end of their fifth year because of all the missed rounds and paperwork.

There was that and the sad fact, Lily noted, that he came from a band of merry troublemakers who called themselves _''__The Marauders_''. A group, that besides Remus, Lily despised.

Their leader, one James Potter, was always hounding Lily for a date; that is when he wasn't pulling pranks in the hallway, bullying innocent bystanders or serving detention with his partner-in-crime, Sirius Black. Lily would admit that both were charming and very handsome, but that, for Lily, was hard to see under all that arrogant, confident and crude behaviour. She vowed this year to not let James Potter get to her, to simply ignore him in the hope that he might disappear. She had to admit he had calmed down a bit in the past year, undoubtedly linked with a fight the four Marauders had with each other in their fifth year, and his receiving of the Prefect position in place of his friend.

What it was over she didn't know, nor did she care in the slightest. Though Lily loved a good gossip, she never once cared what happened with the foursome, as long as it didn't involve her.

Her eyes snapped back into focus as she heard her mother call her from downstairs. They were leaving for Kings Cross Station in ten minutes and Lily had yet to finish packing. She started packing her clothes into her trunk and not before long she realised she was 17. It was her first summer being allowed to do magic at home, and she had forgotten completely about it.

_Well,_ she thought, _no time like the present_.

She swiftly extracted her wand from her cardigan pocket and with a swish and flick her belongings raised, folded and floated easily into her school trunk, which then closed itself and gave a short 'click'. Lily performed a charm on the trunk to make it feather light and carried it with ease down the stairs.

On arriving into the kitchen, she smiled brightly at her mother, Rose. Like Lily, she had fiery, silky hair but not without the appearance of a few greys here and there. She looked exactly like Lily, except her eyes. Lily had her father's dazzling green eyes, which held a constant sparkle behind them. She also got her quick wit from him, and had his sarcastic sense of humour.

Her practicality and studious nature however, was an attribute from her mother. Rose was a fully-fledged doctor and juggled well while Lily and her sister, Petunia, were young. Lily remembered the days when her mother arrived from work to pick them up from their kind, middle-aged neighbour, Arabella Figg.

Mrs. Figg, Lily later learned, was a squib (a child from magical parents that could not perform magic). Lily frequently visited her after she had been accepted to Hogwarts, and kept in touch during the school year. Her neighbour would always be full of news from the Wizarding World during the holidays, especially during the dark times they were going through now.

Lily lifted her trunk easily into the car and took on last look at her house before ducking her head under the roof and sitting down. Her mother turned from her spot in the passenger seat.

''Have everything you need, dear?'' she asked, smiling back at her daughter.

Without hesitation the young witch nodded, and began to double check everything in her head.

''Trunk, robes, Prefect folder,'' she spoke quietly to herself, ticking her belongings off on her fingers. ''Wand, Head Girl Badge...''

''Stop!'' She cried as her father began to pull out of the driveway. ''I'll just be one second.'' Lily swiftly jumped out of the back seat and ran up the stairs, spotting her badge, she snatched it from the dresser table and slid down the banister and hopped out the front door and into the car again.

''Now,'' she panted. ''I have everything.''

Her parents smiled and her father drove out onto the road for their forty minute journey while Lily gave her badge a kiss and a rub with her sleeve. Putting her wand safely in her handbag with her badge, she took out her folder to look over the Prefect duties she would have to give out on the train.


	2. Chapter 2

An hour later, Lily was standing in front of a scarlet steam engine, its smoke billowing over the heads of the crowd of students and parents. Her parents had said their goodbyes and left her at platform nine of the station to walk casually through the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

She stood there smiling as she was reminded of her first trip on the train; she had been friends with Severus and he had told her everything she would need to know. Lily remembered looking at her ticket and worrying, and Severus explaining that they had to run at the wall between platforms nine and ten. She ran, like he had told her, through the wall, although she had done it with her eyes held firmly shut, and she stepped onto the platform, gazing around her.

She had a fight with Petunia that day; her sister had secretly written to the headmaster and had gotten a reply saying that she couldn't go to the school. Lily wandered onto the train, and sat in a compartment by herself, crying. Two boys had come in, but she had pretended not to notice, she vaguely caught words like 'Quidditch', but didn't pay them any attention until Severus Snape came in apologising to her and the two boys, James Potter and Sirius Black, were incredibly rude to her and Severus.

Since then, Severus and Potter had had a loathing relationship. Potter had hexed Severus whenever he had gotten the chance, although Lily could admit that Severus did sometimes provoke him by snide remarks or constantly following him and his friends around. Unlike Severus, Lily found making friends easy, especially in her house as Gryffindor boasted more house spirit than any of the other three. The Gryffindors were united, loyal to each other and even sparked fans from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff whenever there was a Quidditch game. Lily had made very close friends in her house and Patience Nason was her best friend by far.

Unlike Lily, Patience came from a magical family, though she was half-blood with a Muggleborn mother and a pure-blood father. He father worked for the Ministry of Magic as an Auror and her mother was Healer at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The two girls had met when they were both sorted into Gryffindor House in First Year. They became very good friends over the six years in their shared dormitory with the five other girls in their year. Patience really helped Lily through the breakup of her friendship with Severus; she would sit with her in every class and at meals, give him deathly warning glares as he tried to approach her, even cursing him once or twice so he would trip on his way to try to talk to her.

Lily, Patience and their other friend, Mary MacDonald, were among the most popular girls in the school. They all received good grades and were very sought after by a good portion of the wizards at Hogwarts. Lily and Patience were even on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Although she hated the fact that James Potter had been on the team with them since their second year, she couldn't doubt his performance on the pitch as both a Chaser and a captain. Though, these were the only positive qualities that Lily could offer for her captain.

Coming out of her thoughtful daze, Lily looked up and around to see if her friend could be seen in the crowd when she heard the familiar Welsh accent behind her, 'You're looking real jocose, standing down by there!'

Lily turned and smiled as she saw Patience, she had deep-set, turquoise eyes, hidden under ebony bangs. Her hair, Lily noticed, had grown immensely over the summer. Before it had been just above her chest, but now her wavy locks had extended to her waist with the addition of a clump of cobalt hairs that she had intertwined into a braid this morning.

'There wasn't much to play with at the end of last year,' she smiled as she noticed Lily looking at her hair. 'So I got bored and looked up some Charms from that book you gave me for my birthday. '_The Beautiful Witches Charm Guide'_ or some 'fink like that.'

They hugged and filled each other in on their summers. Lily's was mostly uneventful, with the exception of her sister's wedding to a great oaf of a man. Vernon Dursley was a perfectly normal man, who led a perfectly normal life who was perfectly perfect for Lily's older sister Petunia. The newlyweds had then moved two towns over and had visited Lily's parents every weekend.

Patience had also had a majorly uneventful summer; typically she had been waiting out the eight weeks for September first to arrive. Her parents had had some doubts about her returning to Hogwarts because Lord Voldemort had been growing more and more powerful all summer long. Her house had been guarded by strong enchantments and even an Auror or two. Her father, being one of the top Aurors, had access to more protection, as many more Ministry officials and their families were getting attacked or threatened by the day.

By now, the two witches were aboard the train, settling themselves in a compartment and both were speculating who would be Head Boy. Before long the train had pulled away from the platform in a whirl of smoke and frantic waving. Lily cast an imperturbable charm on the door as they changed into their robes and soon enough Lily had to leave to host the Prefect's meeting in the first carriage. She had always thought the train rides on September first were slightly long, but on this, her final journey to Hogwarts, time seemed to be dissolving right in front of her.

After saying her goodbyes to Patience, who then went in search of Mary in hopes to pry her away from her boyfriend, Lily headed up the train to the first carriage, passing compartment windows with hyperactive first years, snogging couples and the odd fight or two but, to her surprise there was not a Marauder in sight. She thought they must be at the back of the train, or even at their Potions teacher's little club meeting.

Professor Slughorn liked to hold what he called the 'Slug Club', a hand-picked bunch of talented or well-connected students that attended functions and parties throughout the year. Being one of his favourite students Lily had been invited, but on this occasion her Head Girl duties came before any social party, least of all one that included James Potter or Sirius Black. As she entered the third carriage she knocked against something and fell back with a surprised 'Oh!'

'I'm so sorry Remus,' she said as she looked up. 'I didn't see you there.'

'Not a problem Lily,' he replied, extending his hand to pull her off the floor. 'I was just coming out of the compartment, never looked to see who might've been coming. Heading to the meeting?'

Lily nodded and fell into step behind Remus, who was making his way into the second carriage. He looked a lot healthier than he had at the end of the last year, Lily noted, though she was always reminded he had ill health, as did his mother who he frequently went to visit throughout the year.

'Nice Summer Remus?' she asked, as she wobbled through the moving train.

'Oh yes, aside from all the news of the attacks of course,' he called over his shoulder. 'You?'

'Same,' she sighed. 'There was another one last week, wasn't there?'

She saw Remus' light brown hair swish as he nodded. 'Indeed, they expected one today what with the return to school. They had Auror protection at the station.'

'I didn't even notice,' Lily confessed. She had been too busy thinking on the platform to notice anything.

'Oh, and congrats on getting Head Girl,' he said with his hand ready to slide back the first carriage door. 'You're going to be great,' he smiled. Lily followed him in the carriage and looked around the room before her eyes landed on a surprising face staring back at her.

Lily didn't notice anything else but the pair of hazel eyes hidden behind round frames. Her emerald eyes never flickered once to any one of the other pairs of eyes now staring at her. Never once did she hear the whispers, the giggles or the sound of a cloak swish as its owner made his way to vacant seat.

She saw only his eyes which changed from an uneasy anxiousness to almost apologetic when he noticed she was there. He didn't blink, he didn't move an inch. He was like a deer caught in headlights.

He attempted to smile, but it faltered giving instead a look of utter terror, like he was bracing himself for her strike.

'Hey, Evans,' he spoke quietly, almost inaudible.

_Well,_ she thought as she looked once again at the pair of hazel eyes, _so much for ignoring James Potter._


	3. Chapter 3

Lily stood there for what seemed like an age before she broke eye contact with the Head Boy, who was now looking desperately at his friend for a bit of support. She cleared her throat, stood up straight and took her seat on the other side of the small table, across from James Potter. Lily looked around, and instead of the twenty-four Prefects that she had expected to be present, a clear handful of them were missing, she mentally noted that the Slytherins weren't there yet.

'Hi everyone,' started Lily, smiling around the room. 'We're still missing some Prefects, so we'll give a few minutes before we start.'

Some shifted nervously in their seats as they looked around and it was very clear who was missing, and who knew the reasons why. One girl, whom Lily recognised as the sixth year, Ruby Prescott, squirmed in her seat and when Lily curiously looked at her, with a cocked eyebrow, she blurted out, 'They're not coming.'

'Oh? Did they tell you?' ask Lily, wondering how this girl knew but, more importantly, why they weren't coming.

'No,' replied the Ravenclaw girl. 'I- I heard them talking when I passed their compartment. They aren't coming.'

'Okay… and did you hear why?'

'I- I… they… no.' Ruby stumbled over her words, before hanging her head. Lily knew that there was something more, but something told her that she didn't want to know, officially, why the Slytherins weren't attending the meeting.

'Right so, let's get started,' began the red head. 'As most of you know, I'm Lily Evans and I'm Head Girl this year. Basically, for the fifth years who are knew to this, Prefects are responsible for a few things; we patrol the corridors during evenings, we give detentions but we cannot take points from other houses.' Lily smiled as a few heads looked dejected at this piece of information.

'We act as representatives for our houses and deal with small problems for other students, as well as that we organise different parties and, of course, the Hogsmeade trips. Now about the patrol-'

Lily was interrupted by the carriage door opening followed by all six Slytherin Prefects and, behind them, their Head of House, Horace Slughorn.

'Lovely Lily,' the potions Professor beamed. 'Congratulations on becoming Head Girl.'

'Thank you Professor,' Lily smiled back. 'Where did you find our missing Slytherins? I was beginning to get worried.' Lily finished with a rare smirk; those were mostly reserved for when she had achieved a minor deflation of James Potter's head.

'Well, I was walking up the train, seeing if any of the first years showed any talents and such, when I spotted all the Prefects from my house sat in one compartment. I thought they might've forgotten about the meeting so I ushered them to come along.'

'Well thank you Professor,' returned Lily. 'They will all be pleased to know that they haven't missed much.'

Lily's eyes trailed over the Slytherins as Slughorn smiled and bowed out of the compartment, closing the door.

'Now, where was I? Oh, patrols. Yes, well I have all your schedules here. They are the same every year, the houses are paired for the eight to ten shift; for example sixth year Hufflepuffs with fifth year Gryffindors are Tuesdays. You can check your times on the sheets. All students are expected to be in their houses at ten o'clock, with the exception of the three sets of seventh year Prefects that patrol Monday to Thursday until eleven. Seventh Year Slytherins are Fridays, eight to ten.' Lily waved her wand and several copies of the schedule floated out of her folder and around the compartment. 'Any Prefect that gives a detention is required to fill out forms and state actual reasons for them and, again, Prefects cannot dock points.'

'Finally fifth year prefects are responsible for showing the first years to their common rooms and telling them where the dormitories are. Well, that's it really; unless our Head Boy has anything to add.' Lily turned to face James, trying not to glower at him.

James stood up and Lily took her seat. He looked around at the students and cleared his throat.

'Well, firstly I'd like to thank Lily here for doing out all of the schedules, I had no idea they had to be done, or in fact about all the different roles Prefects have. As most of you will know, I got the Prefect position for a very brief while in fifth year… I have nothing to add to the duties as such, it's more of a warning to pass on to your houses.'

'As you all know, Voldemort has been growing stronger and stronger as each week passes, and I believe he has a bigger following at this school than many of us would like to imagine.' James tried not to stare directly at the Slytherins as he spoke that sentence, but Lily noticed a definite linger of his eyes in their direction. 'I urge you all to warn your housemates, especially the first years, and, above all, the Muggleborns. Growing up without magic, they won't have any idea who He is, or what's happening and why. Tell your houses to not roam the Halls alone, even between classes, but especially at night. We know there will be patrols, but even Dumbledore can't be everywhere.

'Look out for each other, and especially more vulnerable students. We might think that Hogwarts is the safest place on Earth, but worse things than you can imagine have happened here. That's it from me really, and I hope everyone has a good year.' With that, James sat down, leaving everyone, particularly Lily Evans, stunned.

Lily shook herself out of shock, and turned to the Prefects, 'Well, that's it so, patrols commence tomorrow, and that's seventh year Slytherins from eight to ten. We'll have another meeting next week, when everyone's settled in; you'll be owled with the details.'

The Slytherins were the first to leave; Lily tried to ignore the stare from her former friend, Severus Snape, as he moved towards the door and swept his cloak behind him through the door frame. After a minute or so there were only a handful of students left in the compartment, and Lily could feel a pair of hazel, bespectacled eyes on her. Lily, who was fixing her papers away, moved her eyes up to meet them. 'What is it, Potter?'

'I… I just wanted to say congratulations on becoming Head Girl, Lily, you really deserve it,' he replied, earnestly. Lily met his eyes with a curious expression and smiled in return. _Perhaps he had grown up._

Lily was startled by the bang of the compartment door as the last person left, and turned to see herself alone with James Potter. 'Right, you too, Potter. Just don't you start pulling any pranks or hexing any Slytherins without a good reason.'

Lily turned around to see James smirking, which diminished any hope that he was a reformed character or trustworthy Head Boy.

'Lils...,' she cringed at the nickname. 'You really think that low of me? I promise no pranks… well, no nasty ones this year. I'll leave Snivelly alone too, unless he provokes me.'

James was smiling now, but Lily was not. Her face was somewhere between revulsion and anger as she clung her folders and parchment to her chest, the knuckles on her slender fingers going white, trying to prevent herself from reaching from her wand.

'Don't call him that,' her jaw clenched as the words struggles through her teeth. James was taken aback.

'But… but he called you… and you said – and he's _evil_, Lily… Lily, please,' he pleaded with her.

'I don't want to hear it Potter,' she waved her hand to silence him. 'He may be a Slytherin, he may have called me a Mudblood and he may have some pretty… distasteful friends, but do _not_ use that name! You're just as bad as him when you do.'

'But Lily, he used to be your friend, he's not anymore!'

'I know,' she sighed. 'But you of all people should know about forgiving your friends. For the record I don't forgive him for what he did,' she added as he began to protest again. 'But he was my friend, my best friend. I can't imagine if you and Black fell out you'd start calling him a horrible nickname, would you?'

James sighed, defeated. Lily always saw the best in people, never dwelled on their flaws and always defended those who needed someone to do so, not caring who would question it, or contradict her.

'Okay, Lily,' James said, swinging his bag onto his shoulder. 'But if he starts it…'

'Then you have permission to defend yourself,' she finished. 'But you could be the bigger man and walk away. Not to mention, you _are_ Head Boy after all…'

'But I am still a Marauder,' he countered, with his trademark self-satisfied smirk which she detested. He took two steps past her before she exploded.

'I can't believe I even _thought _that you were taking this seriously!' she spat. 'You're still an arrogant prat!' She had drawn her wand now, and was advancing on him as he eyed her warily.

Her eyes and her wand flashed simultaneously with such ferocity that James didn't catch the spell she muttered, or see her stalk past him as he winced with his eyes closed waiting for pain or a bat-bogey hex. He slowly open his eyes, tentatively touched his face, glasses, hair… She had not harmed him in any way. He spun around to check his reflection in the carriage window. His hair colour hadn't been changed, his face wasn't disfigured. He smirked as he realised her spell was after failing.

Throwing back the door, he stepped out onto the corridor and down through the carriages to find his friends. Slipping into their claimed compartment, and closing the door behind him, with a quick _Muffilato _he collapsed beside Peter, sighing. He snapped his head up when Remus started laughing, followed by Sirius, looking around to see what was so funny. The two boys were in hysterics but neither Peter nor James could see what the joke was.

Between gasps for air, Remus slowly choked out; '_Look…badge...' _before collapsing into hysteria again. James slowly turned is Head Boy badge with his thumb and forefinger and smirked as, against the red in shiny, gold lettering, the words _'Big-Headed Boy'_ shone up at him.


End file.
